The Second Rome as Seen by the Third

Uncertain about its legacy and identity, its past and future, its international status and even its national anthem, Russia – as several times before – turns to Byzantium for a role model. Like Constantinople in the past, Russia feels squeezed between the growing East and the increasingly indifferent West. While real danger comes from the East, animosity is directed at the West. So does this mean that the political tradition in Russia goes back to the “Byzantine roots”?

Sergey Ivanov is Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Slavic Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow) and Professor of Byzantine Studies at the St. Petersburg State University; currently he is Guest at the IWM.

In cooperation with Foundation Open Society Institute, Zug, Switzerland